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Texas Aquatics on Baker Blvd, in Fort Worth (or is it Haltom City?)
TCA Swap Meet March 11 Texas Aquatics is hosting the TCA Swap Meet on March 11 from 1:00 to 4:00 PM. No charge for spaces, bring a table and sell your extra hardware, tanks and fish.
Alternate date in case of bad weather is April 8.

I think I am about to order a lot of freshwater fish, unless I can find a local breeder. I really want some more cories, healthy ones. I really want some healthy clown loach babies, no ich thank you, and I really want some rainbows I think. Still deciding. My last 2 are finally thriving, they are dwarf neons. And Cardinal tetras or maybe diamond tetras or both. Just interesting tetras, not black skirt ghost or neon colored
I know I should...

they are south american cichlids so a pH near neutral is pretty good, or so I thought. I'm taking the 55 and the 20 down to glass bottom for quarantine tanks after I bleach them I guess. I don't have the heart to set them back up like they were. The biological filters in their gravel beds were over 20 years old on both of them. Guess I'll be running a lot of stupid cycling fish after the bleach bath.
(I've just had too many deaths, dog,...

If it takes weekly maintenance it may have to wait a few years. I have a mortgage.
I know I had that tang 4 or 5 years but sand bed accumulated methane or something, which is supposed to break down nitrates and instead it killed my tang. That was a 3 inch sandbed however.
thinner wouldn't do much accumulation, but geophagus want 180 gallon tanks and my foundation here won't handle it and the garage has a car in it. It will have to wait. ...

so, I have never in all my 32 years keeping fish had a sand bottomed freshwater tank.
I converted my 29 gallon salt with u/g , marble chip gravel, skimmer and canister filter to sand bottomed and my yellow tang was dead within 2 weeks.
my daughter has a 45 hex I got for her from someone on here a couple of years ago, she picked it up, turned out to have a sand bottom and hot magnum. she has a lot of snails, and as the guppies become adult...

I added more Epsom salts this morning, I'd massage him but if it's gravel that wou.d probably be lethal, I am far from sure that he will make it but will see how he is tomorrow. I raised a geophagus years ago in that tank with that gravel. He ate all the platies and got moved to one with finer gravel, never occurred to me they'd eat gravel. Thank you for your help

ok, I'm not feeding, I've moved him to a 29 fully cycled, bare bottomed covered with soft poofy easy to eat algae lumps, added a little salt and about a tablespoon of epsom salt. Hopefully he will eat his veggies and pass whatever it is. and hopefully he's not contagious to baby angels.

If he has swallowed gravel it's in his middle, I did look in his mouth, he wasn't a fan. He doesn't look terribly bloated to me but now he has a scuff on the outside of his gill which I probably caused in the chase and exam
- - - Updated - - -
castor oil?
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I have had geophagus do ok in that tank but you could be right, darn. I can move him to a bare bottom one, if it's not too late.

I assumed that's what it was when I lost the female geophagus back in December, I dosed the tank with metronidazole after she went off her feed and continued through the full run. Occupants, now: juvenile male
Red top? Geophagus, dojo, male albino BN
Male stopped eating definitely yesterday, possibly a couple of days, been busy, did a 33% water change last night, pH was 7.5 bumped up a tiny bit with baking soda, and nitrite etc perfect.
...

I still don't know what those fish brought in but the 10 gallon quarantine procedure has been reinstated. Medicated feed with tetracycline cleared the last 2 catfish and th last 2 rainbows. All of the affected guppies from the original tanks died.
so I did a big water change on the 20. 100%, and heated it high. I did a 50% water change on the 55 didn't heat it high. gave it a few days and put 3 fresh clean guppies in each. Females get sick...

I had a houseful children last Saturday Michael and I don't think a 3 year old would have improved the meeting. It may be a bit before I make another meeting, I'm going to have a couple of kids now and then, and ponds are getting busy, but I am going to try.